2014 repress now packaged in a 6 panel digipak with heavy-duty stock and a matte finish. Pauline Oliveros (b. 1930) is an accordionist and composer who currently resides in Kingston, New York. Her instrument is tuned in just intonation and she often includes it in her meditative improvisational music. Her music is not meditative in the sense that it is intended for listening to while meditating, rather each piece is a form of meditation, such as her aptly-titled "Sonic Meditations." "Accordion & Voice was the first of my recordings as a soloist. I was living in an A-frame house in a meadow just below Mount Tremper at Zen Mountain Center. I had a wonderful view of the graceful saddle mountain top. When away on a performance trip I would imagine the mountain as I played 'Rattlesnake Mountain.' I followed the feelings and sensations of my many experiences of the mountain -- the changing colors of the season, the breezes and winds blowing through the grasses and trees. 'Horse Sings from Cloud' taught me to listen to the depth of a tone and to have patience. Rather than initiating musical impulses of motion, melody and harmony I wanted to hear the subtlety of a tone taking space and time to develop. The tones linger and resonate in the body, mind, instrument and performance space. My thanks to Important Music for bringing these pieces to be heard again." --Pauline Oliveros, 2007

2014 repress now packaged in a 6 panel digipak with heavy-duty stock and a matte finish. The Wanderer is based on a single modal scale (B C# D D# E F# G#) and rhythmic modes based on a meter consisting of 3/4 and 3/8. Part I, "Song," is intended to explore the unique resonant qualities of accordion reeds through long sounds. Subtle variations come about from differences in tuning and air pressure. Part II, "Dance," demonstrates the sharp accenting power of the accordion bellows in a mixture of cross rhythms characteristic of jigs, reels, batucadas, Bulgars, Klezmer forms, Cajun dances, and music of other diverse cultures. The Wanderer was composed in November, 1982 especially for the Springfield Accordion Orchestra, directed by Sam Falcetti. This recording documents The Wanderer's world premiere, as it was performed January 27, 1983 at Marymount Manhattan Theatre. The orchestra consists of 20 accordions, two bass accordions, and five percussions, with Pauline Oliveros as soloist, Sam Falcetti conducting. "Horse Sings from Cloud," written in 1975, is one of Oliveros' best-known works. Like most of her "Sonic Meditations," it can be performed vocally and/or instrumentally, solo or in collaboration. A solo version of "Horse Sings from Cloud" has been recorded on Accordion & Voice. An early version of the score reads, "Sustain a tone or sound until any desire to change it disappears. When there is no longer any desire to change the tone or sound, then change it." This time, "Horse Sings from Cloud" is performed in ensemble. Joining Pauline Oliveros on bandoneon are Heloise Gold on harmonium, Julia Haines on accordion, and Linda Montano on concertina. This quartet version incorporates the microtonal differences in tuning of the selected instruments, creating shimmering reed sounds somewhat similar to the shimmering of a Balinese gamelan.

2014 repress. Dense 12 disc retrospective of Pauline Oliveros' early and unreleased electronic work, including her very first piece for tape made in 1961. The majority of these pieces had never before been released. Organized chronologically by studio, this set not only documents Pauline's earliest electronic music, but it also functions as an early history of electronic music itself. Extensive liner notes including essays from Pauline Oliveros, Alex Chechile, Ramon Sender, David Bernstein, Corey Arcangel and Benjamin Tinker. This box set was originally released in conjunction with Pauline Oliveros' 80th birthday celebrations. Pauline Oliveros, composer, performer and humanitarian, is an important pioneer in American Music. Acclaimed internationally, for four decades she has explored sound -- forging new ground for herself and others. Through improvisation, electronic music, ritual, teaching and meditation, she has created a body of work with such breadth of vision that it profoundly effects those who experience it and eludes many who try to write about it. Oliveros has been honored with awards, grants and concerts internationally. Whether performing at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., in an underground cavern, or in the studios of West German Radio, Oliveros' commitment to interaction with the moment is unchanged. She can make the sound of a sweeping siren into another instrument of the ensemble. Through "Deep Listening Pieces" and earlier "Sonic Meditations," Oliveros introduced the concept of incorporating all environmental sounds into musical performance. To make a pleasurable experience of this requires focused concentration, skilled musicianship and strong improvisational skills, which are the hallmarks of Oliveros' form. In performance Oliveros uses an accordion which has been re-tuned in two different systems of her just intonation in addition to electronics to alter the sound of the accordion and to explore the individual characteristics of each room. Pauline Oliveros has built a loyal following through her concerts, recordings, publications and musical compositions that she has written for soloists and ensembles in music, dance, theater and interarts companies. She has also provided leadership within the music community from her early years as the first Director of the Center for Contemporary Music (formerly the Tape Music Center at Mills), director of the Center for Music Experiment during her 14 year tenure as professor of music at the University of California at San Diego to acting in an advisory capacity for organizations such as The National Endowment for the Arts, The New York State Council for the Arts, and many private foundations. She now serves as Distinguished Research Professor of Music at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Darius Milhaud Composer in Residence at Mills College. Oliveros has been vocal about representing the needs of individual artists, about the need for diversity and experimentation in the arts, and promoting cooperation and good will among people.

Restocked. "1 Of IV" and "Big Mother Is Watching You" were both made in the summer of 1966 at the University of Toronto Electronic Music Studio. "1 Of IV" was previously released in 1967, on Odyssey, alongside works by 2 other young composers - "Come out" by Steve Reich and "Night music" by Richard Maxfield. "Big Mother..." is a previously unreleased piece. The 3rd (and final) piece on this compilation was made at the San Francisco Tape Music Center in 1965 and was first released in 1977 on the compilation New Music For Electronic And Recorded Media, released on 1750 Arch Records. The 3 pieces on this CD are all live experiments, which at the simplest level use either an array of oscillators and filters, a mixer and one spool of tape feeding a series of (variously set up) stereo tape machines. Long delay lines, pile ups of noise and rich sonorities are the stuff of this music. The third piece also uses samples taken from Pucini's Madame Butterfly. All 3 pieces on this CD are not included on the 12 CD boxset of early electronic music by Oliveros, released by Important Records.

Primordial/Lift is a continuation of Pauline Oliveros' 80th birthday celebration. This double vinyl record contains the previously-unreleased second performance of Primordial/Lift from September 25th, 2010. The first performance of this work, which took place in 1998, was released on CD in both edited and full-length versions. Interpreting a score penned by Oliveros in 1998, Anne Bourne, Andrew Deutsch, Miguel Frasconi, David Grubbs, Jason Huang and Suzanne Thorpe joined Oliveros at Issue Project Room in Brooklyn to divulge this bizarre and surreal sound work. Centered around a low frequency oscillator, the group swirls cello, voice, sampler, glass drones, e-guitar, violin and V accordion into a molten mass dropped from outer space. Along with the simultaneously released Deep Listening BandNeedle Drop Jungle 2LP, this title completes a tetralogy of Oliveros releases on Taiga that started with the Deep Listening Band Then & Now and Timeless PulseTrio 2LPs. Primordial/Lift was mastered by James Plotkin, cut direct to metal and pressed on 200 gram virgin vinyl in an edition of 500. It comes packaged in a double-wide jacket with the original scores printed in metallic ink and a flooded pocket. The jacket is encased in a custom slipcase, with gorgeous photographs by Michael S. Carlson from deep within the expansive Taiga forest's southern edge.

..Of Their Desperation. "Shortly after it was published in 1968 the SCUM Manifesto by Valerie Solanas fell into my hands. Intrigued by the egalitarian feminist principles set forth in the Manifesto, I wanted to incorporate them in the structure of a new piece that I was composing. The women's movement was surfacing and I felt the need to express my resonance with this energy. Marilyn Monroe had taken her own life. Valerie Solanas had attempted to take the life of Andy Warhol. Both women seemed to be desperate and caught in the traps of inequality: Monroe needed to be recognized for her talent as an actress. Solanas wished to be supported for her own creative work. Commissioned by the Music Department of Hope College, Holland Michigan, To Valerie Solanas and Marilyn Monroe in Recognition of Their Desperation had its premiere in 1970. Though everyone knew Marilyn Monroe hardly anyone recognized Valerie Solanas or took her Manifesto seriously. I brought the names of these two women together in the title of the piece to draw attention to their inequality and to dedicate the piece." -- Pauline Oliveros. "This LP contains both the 1970 Hope College premiere, performed by a 14-piece ensemble, and a 1977 recording from Wesleyan University, performed by a 43-piece orchestra. Roaratorio is proud to present the first commercially available release of this eerie, beautiful, and important Oliveros work. Cover artwork by Judith Lindbloom. Download coupon included."

"Pauline Oliveros & the University of Michigan Digital Music Ensemble, directed by Stephen Rush. This DVD, recorded live at University of Michigan, features three of composer and performer Pauline Oliveros' compositions: Sound Piece; Sound Fishes; and Heart of Tones." Audio in 5.1 surround sound; bonus features: audio commentary on Sound Piece by Stephen Rush, Chris Peck and Jon Moniaci; "Spectragram Visualization" version of Heart of Tones; program and posters; scores and bios.

Sub Rosa presents Pauline Oliveros' early and definitive tape and electronic music of the late fifties and sixties -- all released for the first time ever! Born in Texas in 1932, Pauline Oliveros is more than ever an important American composer. Her accomplishments speak to an array of disciplines: her pieces for accordion; the creation of the Deep Listening Institute, a center dedicated to fostering artistic creativity through workshops, performances, and new technologies; her approach to improvisation in relation to meditation; and her numerous and varied collaborations with, among others, John Cage, Morton Subotnick, Terry Riley, Sonic Youth, Erold and Andrew Deutsch. Each piece on this release exemplifies her systematic exploration of electronic sounds, which was fundamental to this period. "Mnemonics" prefigures her meditative and breathing pieces. "V of IV" structures sound as noise. "Time Perspectives" is among her first variations on silence. Finally, "Once Again" develops a wild energy that out-strips itself, a frenzy the likes of which is hard to find even to this day. As Oliveros explains, the detailed methodology behind her work offers a unique inquiry into the process of artistic invention itself. "My work with electronic music began in 1959. My first tape piece was an ambitious four channel work called 'Time Perspectives.' The piece was made by recording small sounds from objects resonated on a wooden wall and changing the tape speed. I used cardboard tubes as filters by inserting the mic into the tube and recording sources through the tubes. I used my bath tub as a reverberation chamber. Sections of the piece were improvised and then subjected to speed changes. When the San Francisco Tape Music Center was established together with Ramon Sender and Morton Subotnik there was a pool of equipment to use and I began to work with electronic sound. Rather than cut and splice small pieces of tape together to make a composition I chose to work in real time. I used two tape machines with the tape running across both machines to make a delay system. I used two or more oscillators at high frequencies to produce different tones. These tones would also interact with the bias frequencies of the tape recorders. I would play the oscillators into the tape recorders improvising my way through the piece. My system of composing in this manner was my own invention." --Pauline Oliveros

"'Lion's Eye for Gamelan' was commissioned in 1985 by Barbara Benary for Gamelan Son of Lion. "Lion's Eye for Sampler' was commissioned concurrently by Neil Rolnick for iEAR Presents at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Both versions were performed in 1985. The intention to combine both pieces in order to expand the tempo range of the Gamelan was first realized in May of 1989 in performances by the Berkeley Gamelan in Oakland and San Francisco, California under the direction of Daniel Schmidt. This version of 'Lion's Eye' is recorded on this disc. The duration of 'Lion's Eye' is forty-five minutes. 'Lion's Tale' (1989) is composed of layered polymetrical, polyrhythmical patterns. The patterns are played at speeds ranging up to 1800 per minute. The composer designed patterns are generated by the computer program. 'Lion's Tale' may be created in a new version every time the program is run. 'Lion's Tale' also exists in a MIDI version for a keyboard performer."

"Originally released on the Table of the Elements label and long out of print, this version of the recording contains an additional 30 minutes of material not included on the original release. Recorded live on March 20, 1998 at Hallwalls, Buffalo, NY. Primordial/Lift is based on information concerning the shift in the resonant frequency of the earth from 7.8hz to 13hz given in Awakening to the Zero Point by Gregg Braden, Radio Bookstore Press (1997). According to Braden, the resonant frequency of the earth was measured as 7.8hz in 1960 and by 1994 the measurement was at 8.6hz and it will rise to 13hz by 2010. At the same time the magnetic fields of the earth are diminishing in strength towards zero point. By the time that 13hz is established as the resonant frequency the magnetic fields will reverse their polarity - North will become South and vice versa. The acceleration from 7.8hz to 13hz of the earth's resonant frequency is represented in Primordial/Lift by a low frequency oscillator." Pauline Oliveros - accordian & electronics, voice; Andrew Deutsch - electronics & toy piano; Tony Conrad - electric violin & ring modulator; Anne Bourne - cello & voice; Alexandria Gelencser - electric cello; David Grubbs - harmonium; Scott Olson - low frequency oscillator.

"The two works on this CD -- 'Tara's Room' and 'The Beauty of Sorrow' were composed and performed by Pauline Oliveros and recorded in May 1987. Previously only available as a cassette and long out of print, Deep Listening is proud to make these wonderful pieces available on CD. 'The Beauty of Sorrow' is intended to assist the listener in connecting and relaxing with deep feelings. 'The Beauty of Sorrow' was played by the composer on a small accordion tuned in just intonation and using Lexicon delay processors in a version of her Expanded Instrument System (EIS). Tara's Room is an invocation for wisdom especially during an unfamiliar journey. Tara's Room is a multi-track recording with all materials (voice, percussion, flute) played and sung by Pauline Oliveros."

2001 release, restocked. "In the summer of 1966 I worked in the classical Electronic Music Studio at the University of Toronto for six weeks. The system I used to create 'No Mo' and 'Something Else' consisted of Layfette tone generators, noise source and tape delay. In the Fall of 1966 I was the newly appointed director of the Mills Tape Music Center formerly the San Francisco Tape Music Center and now the Center for Contemporary Music at Mills College. 'Bog Road' was created at the Mills Tape Music Center in the Summer of 1967 with the Buchla Series 100 Box. The studio overlooked a pond where frogs were singing a chorus that inspired a series of Bog pieces".-- Oliveros

1997 release, restocked. Features 2 long tracks (63 total minutes) of early, emotionally stunning electronic music from Ms. Oliveros. "Her revolutionary work in the use of tape delay and heterodyne techniques, coupled with experimental use of combination tones and supersonic frequencies, presaged techniques now being explored digitally," and there's never been better evidence of it than the brain-eclipsing "Alien Bog" -- a masterpiece of electronic tone squelch. Only an excerpt of this has been previously issued, while "Beautiful Soop" is released for the first time. "During her first year at The Tape Music Center at Mills College in Oakland, CA, Pauline Oliveros completed 'Beautiful Soop' (1966) and 'Alien Bog' (1967) utilizing the original Buchla Box 100 series created for the Tape Music Center by Don Buchla and her tape delay system. 'I was deeply impressed by the sounds from the frog pond outside the studio window at Mills. I loved the accompaniment as I worked on my pieces. Though I never recorded the frogs, I was of course deeply influenced by their music."

The long awaited soundtrack of the Ghostdance music and dance collaboration between Oliveros and Paula Josa-Jones, commissioned by Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors. Performed by: Pauline Oliveros (accordion/EIS), David Gamper (djembe/EIS) & Julie Lyon Rose (voice/EIS). "The Expanded Instrument System (EIS) used in this recording is an evolving electronic sound processing environment dedicated to providing improvising musicians control over various interesting parameters of electronic transformation of their acoustic instruments. Performers each have their own setup which includes their delay and ambiance processors, microphones, signal routing and mixing, and a computer which translates and displays control information from foot pedals and switchs."